The crooked flight of the F-35

[unhappycamper]

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/2014/08/05/The-crooked-flight-of-the-F-35-waldman/stories/201408050047



The crooked flight of the F-35
August 5, 2014 12:00 AM
By PAUL WALDMAN

Recently in Fort Worth, Texas, officials from the Pentagon, Lockheed Martin and the Australian government gathered to celebrate as two F-35 fighter jets bound for our ally down under were rolling off the assembly line. If you’ve followed the news about this plane over the past few years, you know it has been one of the most remarkable boondoggles we’ve ever seen — not only the most expensive weapons system in history but one plagued by disastrous problem after disastrous problem.

The remarkable lack of interest in figuring out how things could have gone so wrong with this plane, especially from people who claim to be so concerned about runaway government spending, tells you something about what a sham deficit hawkery really is.

When (mostly) Republicans say they want to cut government spending, what they mean is they want to cut spending on programs they don’t like. You can couch it in abstract principles about the size of government, but they like some things that government does (military spending) and not others (provide a social safety net), so they want to cut the latter but not the former.

Even so, it’s pretty stunning to say, “We should spend half a trillion dollars on this weapons system, and not only do I not care how high costs spiral, I don’t really care whether it’s a piece of junk.” But that is, in effect, what most everyone in Congress has said about the F-35.

--

Here's an interesting graphic I picked up the other day:

[Gothmog]

1. I hope that they reverse the decision on the A10

Keep the Warthog